Out Fox The $treet

After the close on Wednesday, Tesla Motors, Inc. ( TSLA ) reported a surprising profit beat for Q113 that sent the stock soaring in the two trading days after the report. The stock that closed Wednesday regular trading at $55.79 soared to touch $81 on Friday. Did the earnings news, while encouraging considering the history of missing earnings estimates, actually change the direction of the profit picture for the company? The leading developer of electric vehicles has been on a roll in the last couple of months with the stock soaring from $35 in mid-March to gain more than 130% by mid-day Friday. The bullish move all started when CEO Elon Musk famously tweeted about a profitable quarter and the stock has exploded ever since that day. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Tesla Motors, Inc. ( TSLA ) continues to trade around highs even as analysts cut estimates. The company recently predicted profits for Q1 2013, yet the average analyst still expects a small loss by the company. In fact, over the last week, the Q1 estimate has slightly dropped to a loss of $0.07. The company is leading the charge to developing the electric vehicle market with several revolutionary Model S that has obtained numerous awards. While the stock remains close to the highs at around $37, the analysts continue to drop the estimates for 2013. The company reported what appeared to be strong results for Q4, so why have the analysts gotten more negative on 2013 and 2014 results? Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Anybody following this blog knows that Stone Fox Capital has been negative on Tesla Motors (TSLA) because the CEO, Elon Musk, is actively involved in multiple firms. In what is seen as his 3rd firm, SolarCity (SCTY) debuted to on the Nasdaq. The CNBC interview this morning highlights the issue with him so focused on other firms. As only Chairman, it's odd for him to be interviewed along with the CEO. Typically its the CFO if anybody that shows up on tv. Note how the conversation goes directly towards Tesla when the CEO can't hear the interviewers. Just the confusion on this interview highlights the risks in these stocks. Elon is clearly highly involved with this firm along with SpaceX. As the CEO of Tesla, he should be spending all of his time on that firm. The guy is obviously brilliant, but his competition is completely focused on one company and sector. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Prior to the open on Tuesday, Tesla Motors (TSLA) announced that Q3 revenues would not meet analyst estimates. The company is having significant problems ramping production and obtaining supplies on time. Did you catch that part about issues with suppliers? Seriously? Production was half the forecast and only 300 vehicles in Q3, yet suppliers couldn't keep up. That clearly can't be a good sign, as these suppliers must typically deal with thousands if not millions of parts for other automakers. This is starting to remind me of the Dreamliner plane built by Boeing (BA) : an innovative product that took much longer to produce due to the complexities of a new design and a diverse supplier network. The only difference is that Boeing lacks major competition while also having the capital to withstand any setbacks. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Great interview from Bloomberg with Elon Musk. Musk was a co-founder of PayPal and the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors (TSLA) . He has done some incredible stuff by developing an electric vehicle manufacturer and a space company. Unfortunately as anybody following this blog probably knows we're just not fans of investing in a company such as Tesla that has a part time CEO. Even a CEO as talented as Musk. Anybody paying attention probably knows that SpaceX recently launched the first private spaceship headed to dock with the International Space Station. An incredible feat considering the difficulty and expense that NASA had run into in the last decade. The more incredible stat that I read was that SpaceX has spent less money to develop a spaceship than the $1B  Facebook (FB) spent on Instagram. Now isn't that a sign of the times! Below is good interview from Bloomberg discussing the recent launch and the plans for Tesla. The interesting statement was the odds of station do...

It has long been known that Elon Musk of Tesla Motors (TSLA) was a CEO focused on other ventures. He is currently the CEO and Chief Designer of SpaceX and Chairman of SolarCity beyond his role of CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors. I'm tired just thinking about all the work he does. He is juggling so many roles that at some point one has to slip up. Doesn't it? Elon is a brilliant guy and he clearly must have some strong people helping lead these companies. He has gotten farther with both Tesla Motors and SpaceX than numerous other start-ups in those fields. Since these multiple roles were well documented when Tesla went public back in 2010, it isn't something that has held back the stock that recently hit all time highs of nearly $40. Is this really much different than Steve Jobs handling the development of iTunes, iPhone, iPad and the starts of iTV? He was very controlling in those decisions, but the difference is that he wasn't serving multiple masters. If St...

Note: This article was originally written at the end of November to correspond with a short position in TSLA. Unfortunately I failed to make the trade and now TSLA has swooned big time. It will definitely be followed for future entry points on the short side. The news of the Russian billionaire entering the market just further highlights the competition for a sexy market similar to airlines even when the leading independent company is far from profitable.  While most of America is enamored with the supposed benefits of lower emissions of electric cars, the real beneficiaries appear to be utilities and coal and natural gas producers.  Lots of people debate whether electric cars reduce emissions. After all, power plants that use coal fuel electric cars. People seem to assume that batteries get charged by fairy dust. The Washington Post had a great article a few weeks back detailing why utilities are both thrilled and worried about electric cars. Something about utilities b...